Cardin meets with Pussy Riot at Capitol

Members of protest group Pussy Riot

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina.

John FritzeThe Baltimore Sun

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin met with members of the protest group Pussy Riot on Tuesday to bring attention to human rights abuses in Russia as well as his efforts to expand economic sanctions against top officials in the country.

The Maryland Democrat, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. Helsinki Commission on human rights said that Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina put a face on abuses that he said have taken place under the government of Vladimir Putin

"Unless you can put a face on it, it's difficult to get attention or action," Cardin said.

Cardin has made a human rights abuses in Russia a central part of his foreign policy. Last year he managed to push legislation through Congress to impose sanctions on some Russian officials. He is now working to expand the measure.

"We'd like to remind our government that they have obligations that they have signed...and we would like them not to continue having such anti-Russian polices," Alyokhina said.